Open-source GenBI for AI agents
Your agents generate governed SQL, deploy dashboards, and keep business definitions in Git, across 22+ data sources.
Get started in 3 commands ↓ · Read the docs → · Join Discord →
What WrenAI is
WrenAI is the open-source generative BI (GenBI) engine. It gives the AI agents you already use (Claude Code, Cursor, MCP clients, LangChain) a governed semantic layer and an AI context layer, so they turn business questions into correct SQL, ship the answer as a shareable dashboard, and stay inside your guardrails.
Schemas tell an agent where data lives. Wren tells it what the data means: approved metric definitions, enums, units, joins, worked examples, and the tribal knowledge buried in docs and chat threads. All of it lives as reviewable YAML and Markdown in a repo you own.
Quickstart
Three commands, then your agent does the rest. Works with Claude Code, Cursor, Cline, Codex, and 50+ other agents.
1. Install the CLI
pip install wrenai
Add connector extras as you need them, for example pip install "wrenai[postgres,memory]".
2. Teach your agent about Wren
npx skills add Canner/WrenAI
This installs a ~50-line discovery stub. Your agent fetches full workflow guides from the CLI on demand, so instructions always match the installed version.
3. Open your agent in a project folder and ask
"Use Wren to set up my Postgres database."
The agent checks your environment, creates a connection profile, scaffolds the project, and runs a first query.
No database handy? Say "Use Wren with the bundled jaffle_shop sample" and run the same flow against a real sample warehouse.
Slow pip install from mainland China?
pip install wrenai -i https://pypi.tuna.tsinghua.edu.cn/simple
If HuggingFace model downloads time out, run export HF_ENDPOINT=https://hf-mirror.com before using the CLI.
Then keep going
Once you're connected, these three prompts cover the whole GenBI loop:
| Beat | Ask your agent | What happens |
|---|---|---|
| Know | "Enrich my Wren project with the business context in raw/." |
Runs wren skills get enrich-context. Writes definitions, examples, and memory as reviewable files. |
| Generate | "Who are our top 10 customers by sales this quarter?" | Recalls MDL context and past queries, writes governed SQL, executes via wren query. |
| Deploy | "Turn that into a dashboard I can filter and share, deployed to Vercel." | Runs wren skills get genbi. Builds a browser-side app and returns a live URL on your Vercel or Cloudflare Pages account. |
Why agent builders pick WrenAI
- Answers and dashboards, not just SQL. Generate a governed answer, deploy it as a dashboard, share the URL. One agent-driven loop, end to end.
- Correct instead of confidently wrong. Schema-aware retrieval, MDL planning, dry-plan validation, row limits, value profiling, and structured errors with hints keep agent SQL inside guardrails.
- Business meaning lives in Git. Metric definitions, enums, approved joins, and proven examples are versioned files. Review them in a pull request. Diff them. Take them with you.
- Works through the agents you already run. Claude Code, Cursor, Cline, Codex, MCP clients, LangChain. Wren is a layer, not another chat UI to adopt.
- Sits on your existing stack. Warehouse, transformation pipelines, existing semantic models. 22+ sources on one Apache DataFusion engine.
- Open by default. Core engine, SDK, and skills under Apache-2.0. It runs without us.
How Wren compares
| A raw LLM agent | A traditional BI tool | A bare semantic layer | WrenAI | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Writes SQL for you | ✅ (often wrong) | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ governed |
| Knows your business definitions | ❌ | partial, in-tool | ✅ (schema only) | ✅ + non-schema knowledge |
| Generates & deploys dashboards | ❌ | ✅ (manual, in-tool) | ❌ | ✅ agent-driven |
| Works through your agents (Claude Code, Cursor, MCP…) | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ |
| Open, reviewable, Git-friendly context | ❌ | ❌ | partial | ✅ |
| Governed execution across 22+ sources | ❌ | per-connector | ✅ (definitions only) | ✅ |
Wren is for you if…
- You want AI agents to produce trustworthy BI, answers and dashboards, not just plausible SQL.
- Your business logic (definitions, enums, units, approved joins) lives outside the database and your agents keep getting it wrong.
- You want a context layer that is open, reviewable, and version-controlled, usable by every agent and every person, not gated behind one vendor's UI.
Skip Wren if you only need a one-off chart from a single CSV, or you're happy letting an agent guess at SQL with no governance.
Take it to your team with git push
Everything Wren writes on your laptop is plain YAML and Markdown in a repo you own. Git Sync turns that same repo into a governed, team-wide GenBI deployment in Wren Cloud or a self-hosted installation, including air-gapped. Nothing to export, nothing to re-model.
- No new CLI to learn. Bind a directory once with
wren cloud createorwren cloud link. After that,git pushandgit pullare the entire interface. - Metrics reviewed like code. A change to
net_revenueshows up as a readable diff in a pull request on GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket, or your own remote. Run CI on it. Promote staging to production like application code. - You keep the repo, always. Clone it, back it up, feed it to another tool, or leave with it, any time.
- No reusable credential on disk. Every push authenticates with a fresh token that expires in 600 seconds. The durable key stays in
~/.wren/cloud.yml(mode0600) and is never handed to git.
$ git push To cloud.getwren.ai/acme/wren-analytics.git 9f2c1a4..b71e0d3 main -> main ✔ deploy queued · model queryable in Wren Cloud
Open core: what's OSS, what's commercial
The engine in this repo (MDL semantic layer, governed text-to-SQL, MCP server, CLI, 22+ connectors) is Apache-2.0, free forever, and self-hostable. The following are commercial, delivered as Wren AI Cloud or self-hosted Enterprise Plus:
- Row- and column-level security and access control with users and groups
- GenBI UI, dashboards, embedded and APIs
- Scenario AI harnesses: GenBI Apps, Agentic Mode, AI-assisted context preparation
- Advanced security and audit, support and SLAs, plus cloud, VPC, and air-gapped deployment
Same engine underneath. Your MDL stays in your Git either way. Read the published boundary →
Under the hood
Semantic layer (MDL)
Wren is a governed semantic layer, expressed in the Modeling Definition Language (MDL): a Git-friendly definition of what your data means, not just where it lives. Every answer and dashboard is planned against it.
- Models, columns, relationships, views: the shape of your data, decoupled from any one warehouse.
- Cubes and metrics: approved, reusable definitions so "revenue" means the same thing everywhere.
- Context beyond the schema: enums, units, approved joins, and definitions in
instructions.mdandqueries.yml.
What's included
- Engine: Apache DataFusion based. BigQuery, Snowflake, PostgreSQL, ClickHouse, Amazon Redshift, Databricks, DuckDB, and more. Connect a database →
- GenBI dashboards: agent-built, browser-side apps powered by
wren-core-wasm, deployable to Vercel or Cloudflare Pages - Knowledge and memory: version-controlled
instructions.mdandqueries.yml, plus a local LanceDB memory index with hybrid retrieval - Agent SDKs:
wren-langchain(LangChain / LangGraph),wren-pydantic, and a reference Python integration for other stacks. SDK overview → - Governed execution primitives: functions, dry-plan validation, row limits, structured errors
Day-to-day commands
wren skills get onboarding # workflow guide: set up project + first query wren skills get enrich-context # workflow guide: add business context wren skills get genbi # workflow guide: build & deploy a dashboard wren query --sql '...' # query through the MDL semantic layer wren ask "<question>" --guided # wrap a question for a weaker agent wren ask "<question>" --direct # wrap a question for a stronger agent
Full reference: CLI · MDL · Architecture
What's next
- End-to-end correctness primitives: value profiling, rich retrieval, structured errors, golden eval runner
- Agent-native distribution: first-class SDKs across major agent frameworks
Vote on what ships next in GitHub Discussions →
FAQ
What is generative BI (GenBI)?
Business intelligence produced by AI agents. Instead of a person building charts by hand, an agent generates governed SQL, deploys a dashboard, and shares it, grounded in an AI context layer so the output is trustworthy rather than merely plausible. Wren AI is the open-source GenBI engine.
Does Wren AI do text-to-SQL?
Yes, and governed: questions become SQL planned against your semantic layer (MDL) and dry-plan validated before execution. Wren then goes further, deploying dashboards and managing the context that keeps answers correct.
Is Wren AI a semantic layer?
Yes. Wren is a governed semantic layer expressed in MDL (models, metrics, relationships), paired with an AI context layer (memory, examples, unstructured knowledge) and a governed execution engine that runs those definitions across 22+ sources.
What is an AI context layer?
The reviewable, version-controlled knowledge agents need but schemas don't provide: business semantics, approved definitions, examples, memory, and governance. Read the vision: The missing context layer for AI agents over business data.
What happened to the Docker-based Wren AI GenBI app?
On 2026-05-07 Wren Engine merged into this repo under core/, and the previous Canner/wren-engine repo was archived. The earlier chat-first BI product is now Wren GenBI Classic, preserved on the legacy/v1 branch (tag v1-final) with no new features or security fixes. For a maintained, hosted version of that experience, see Wren AI Commercial. Read the announcement →
Documentation
- Quickstart: from skill install to first answer
- Build & deploy a GenBI app: generate a dashboard and ship it
- Concepts: what context is, what MDL is, how memory works
- Connect a database: Postgres, BigQuery, Snowflake, DuckDB, and more
- Agent SDKs: what's shipping today, what's next
- Git Sync:
git pushyour open-source project to governed, team-wide GenBI
Community
- 💬 Discord: get unstuck fast, chat with the team and other builders
- 🐙 GitHub Discussions: design conversations, RFCs, roadmap votes
- 🐦 Twitter / X: release notes and short updates
- 🗞 Blog: vision, post-mortems, deep dives
Contributing
We build in the open. Issues, PRs, connectors, SDK integrations, and docs fixes are all welcome.
- New here? Pick up a
good first issue. - Contributor guide: setup, conventions, and the contribution bar
- Architecture map: find the right place to land your change
Project structure (click to expand)
core/
wren-core/ Rust semantic engine (Apache DataFusion)
wren-core-base/ Shared manifest types + MDL builder
wren-core-py/ Python bindings (PyPI: wren-core)
wren-core-wasm/ WebAssembly build (npm: wren-core-wasm)
wren/ Python SDK and CLI (PyPI: wrenai)
wren-mdl/ MDL JSON schema
sdk/
wren-langchain/ LangChain / LangGraph integration
wren-pydantic/ Pydantic AI integration
skills/ Agent skills for context authoring
docs/ Module documentation
examples/ Example projects
Contributors
License
Apache 2.0. See LICENSE.
If WrenAI saved you time, star the repo ⭐. It's the fastest way to help more agent builders find it.